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Monday, February 25, 2013

Old Hag Syndrome: A Look at Sleep Paralysis (video)

By Bryce Baker

Many people have suffered from Sleep Paralysis at some point in their
life and never realize there is a name for it. Others suffer from Sleep
Paralysis regularly and research it, struggling to find a cause of Sleep
Paralysis.

For those who dont know, Sleep Paralysis is the
inability to move voluntarily that some people experience either right
before going to sleep or directly after waking up.

There are two
types of Sleep Paralysis,Common Sleep Paralysis CSP, and Hallucinatory
Sleep Paralysis (HSP). The major difference between the two types of
Sleep Paralysis is that Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis is accompanied by
frightening hallucinations, feelings of intense fear, and the strong
feeling of an evil presence. Almost all cases of Hallucinatory Sleep
Paralysis occur when victims are sleeping on their backs.

Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis has been documented all through human
history and almost every culture has its own legends behind it.
Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis is often called Old Hag Syndrome, due to
the common accounts of seeing or sensing the presence of an Old Hag
often putting pressure on the chest or choking the victims.

Some
accounts of Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis describe a small gremlin or
demonic being sitting on the chest. There are still quite a few
incidents of Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis that report a black cat on
top of the victim stealing their breath, this may be the source of many
of the superstitious beliefs in some countries that cause people to be
afraid of cats and keep them away from their houses.

A
particularly interesting thing to note about Hallucinatory Sleep
Paralysis, is evidence shows that Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis will
often effect an area like an epidemic. Many cases will be reported in a
short period of time when no cases had been reported prior. Studies show
that some areas can remain affected for years, but most only weeks or
months. This is something science has not yet been able to explain. Old
Hag Syndrome also seems to run in families, I can say this is true for
my own family.

Sleep Paralysis is just a sleep disorder in the
eyes of the medical community. But many who have experienced Sleep
Paralysis. particularly Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis find it hard to
convince themselves that an outside force is not at work, this is
including myself.

In my own case this is mainly because my
particular experiences with intense Old Hag Syndrome were sometimes
shared; meaning others that were close to me would report similiar Sleep
Paralysis experiences on the same nights without me ever mention
anything about Sleep Paralysis to them before. Shared experiences are
sometimes occurs with Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis, and this is a fact
even the medical community acknowledges and cannot explain. And aside
from that, my episodes of Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis subsided and
were immediately followed by paranormal activity in my house. This
paranormal activity was particularly severe and it is my belief that it
was directly linked to my prior episodes of Sleep Paralysis. The
paranormal activity eventually went away, and I wont go off the subject
of Sleep Paralysis entirely by going into too much detail. But I will
say that some of the worst examples of this paranormal activity involved
physical attacks by unseen things while wide awake, consisting of
slapping, and scratching.]

I am not dismissive of scientific,
rational explanations of things. I would have loved to comfort myself by
believing that Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis was simply a sleep
disorder. But the nature of these attacks and the events surrounding
them forced me to doubt that. I didn't necessarily believe that ghosts or
demons were behind it, although at times I seriously considered it, all
I really knew is that some outside influence had to be the source of my
sleep paralysis. It is perhaps needless to say that I have since been
eager to learn the real cause of Old Hag Syndrome.

Some of the
things the medical community claims are likely causes of Sleep Paralysis
are going long periods of time without sleep, insomnia, stress in daily
life, irregular sleeping schedules and even lack of exercise.

While I
am sure this is true for Common Sleep Paralysis, I doubt these are the
causes of Old Hag Syndrome, maybe contributing factors at most. But if
you are suffering from any form of Sleep Paralysis, it may be worth it
trying to address these issues to see if it will act as your cure for
Sleep Paralysis.

Recent scientific studies on Hallucinatory
Sleep Paralysis has suggested that most reports of Hallucinatory Sleep
Paralysis occur in areas when there is little to no geomagnetic
activity. The absence of geomagnetic activity has also been linked with
reports of paranormal activity. As well as infrasonic sound waves in
other studies, that are sometimes created by geological activity. This
could explain why HSP seems to occur geographically, and people having
shared experiences. And given the fact it could also have something to
do with paranormal activity, I find this an interesting and highly
possible explanation.

Its obvious to me there is alot to be
learned about Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis and undoubtedly the effects
subsonic vibrations and geophysical activity has on us. But regardless
of what you think causes Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis, be it the Old
Hag, medical disorders, genetics or geomagnetic fields.

One thing is
undeniable, Sleep Paralysis is a strange and horrifying occurence that
leaves many questions unanswered.

2 comments:

I had a weird experience with the old hag. I have had undiagnosed sleep paralysis since I was a young child I never knew what it was until I just recently looked it up after the other night. I had another episode and this time I felt a darkness an evil like it says on ur webpage and then an old women a parted next to my bed not on me but it was like she was fading in and out twitching and jerking and with its hand reaching out to me it felt like it was trying to attack me but something was stopping it. Not like others I usually can move a lil bit but this time it lasted for almost 30 mins like I was fighting my body to move and fighting it I'm not trying to sound like a tough guy but at the time when I was slightly moving I didn't know how to react and I gave her the finger which was very hard to do. Ever since I can't shake this weird feeling I knew nothing about this or anything until it happened and I did some research. I don't understand this I don't want to sound stupid but I almost feel like I can still feel it y do these go together what's there association. And I have the biggest feeling like there is more to this story I mean my eyes were open I was awake I could barely move and could barley squeak BC I couldn't talk like I said I've had this sleep paralysis happen to me a lot and I mean a lot since I was a child but this just felt wrong it looked like a cross between that horror movie momma and the ring I just can't wrap my head around it if you can send me any info so I can do some more research it would be greatly appreciated. Scarred847@gmail.com

I read what you said on the National Paranormal Association Web site. I had a problem with this around 15 years ago. I might have gotten it by taking a mirror and spray painting it black. I had found out later that these were used in black magic. I thought it looked cool and hung it in my house. Soon after that the old hag started to appear. I was told that cats can git rid of these things. I got a cat that needed a home. A tuxedo young female cat. She was a very nice cat and i really liked her. One night when I was sleeping she was really acting up and it appeared she was fighting the old hag in my place while i could not move. I can't say for sure that the cat was responsible for getting rid of her. But something was going between the 2 of them and now no more old hag. It's kind of funny the cat died and I got another one real fast. If you do not like cats maybe you can borrow one. I saw the movie “The Entity “ and it was very scary. I do not know what the old hag is. If I was going to guess. It is an evil spirit.